Email marketing is a combination of art and science and we love to talk about both. Like any other area of expertise, it takes time and lots of practice before you become an expert; and just when you think you've got it all figured out, the landscape shifts again. But in the meantime, there are plenty of things that you can learn that will help you get started or improve your current email marketing efforts.
What is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is a type of direct marketing that uses email to deliver messages about a company’s products or services.
Email Marketing is one of the most powerful tools for any business. It is the most direct form of communication and allows for personalization, segmentation, and automation.
Importance of Email Marketing
Email marketing is an important part of the digital marketing mix. It's one of the most cost-effective ways to reach your audience and drive sales.
It’s a great way to build relationships with your customers and prospects, as well as to generate leads and increase conversions.
Email marketing can also be used to create a sense of urgency in order to get people to buy now, instead of later.
Tips for Email marketing
Email marketing is a powerful tool for generating leads and sales. It is also a great way to stay in touch with your customers and prospects.
Here are some tips for creating an email marketing campaign that will be successful:
- Give your prospects the opportunity to opt out of your emails or unsubscribe from them.
- Make sure you send out emails on a regular basis, but not too often.
- Include a link in the email that allows people to unsubscribe from future emails.
Top 11 Email Marketing skills to learn
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| Top 11 Email Marketing skills to learn |
1. Email automation
Email automation is the process of automatically sending emails to your subscribers based on certain triggers.
The benefits of email automation are: it gives you more time to focus on other important areas of your business, it helps you reach more people and maintain a steady flow of new customers, plus it can reduce costs by repurposing existing content or creating it in bulk (for example, if you have an evergreen list).
There are different types of email automation such as drip marketing (also called “autoresponders”), which sends messages at a predefined interval; triggered messaging that takes action based on specific events; smart campaigns that send personalized messages depending on who opens them; and custom workflow rules that allow users to create their own automated sequences.
There are many tools available for automating your emails but some popular ones include ConvertKit, MailChimp, and Infusionsoft.
2. Email copywriting
Good email copywriting is a vital part of your email marketing strategy. It's important to know how to write good copy because the copy you send through your emails has a direct impact on your company's brand, reputation, and sales.
So what does good email copywriting look like? The first step in mastering this skill is learning about the benefits of good writing. In this section, we'll cover ways that great content can help you improve conversions, gain more leads and build stronger relationships with customers:
Better branding and reputation - Writing compelling messages helps reinforce your company's brand image by demonstrating that you take pride in providing quality service or products. This shows readers that they can trust you with their business during checkout or when they need help interacting with customer service representatives.
More leads - By providing detailed information about what benefits customers will receive after purchasing something from you (like new product updates), you're giving them enough reason to fill out an order form right away instead of waiting until later down the road—which means more chances for conversion!
3. Email design and HTML
All email marketing platforms have built-in HTML editors, which allow you to format your emails in a visual way. You can use bold and italic text, add images, change the color of text, apply CSS styles to different elements (such as p tags), etc.
While some email marketing services may require advanced knowledge of HTML and CSS code before you can use their editor, other services offer more user-friendly options that don’t require any coding skills.
If you’re interested in learning how exactly these two languages work together with email design, check out our article How To Design Emails With HTML & CSS.
4. Content marketing for email marketing
A content marketing strategy can be used to generate leads and sales. Content marketing is also a way to attract new customers and keep existing ones. It's also a great way to build trust with potential buyers, which will help you earn their business.
Content marketing for email marketing works by sending emails that offer something of value—like an article or how-to guide—to your contacts' inboxes. This type of content provides useful information that people will want to read so they can improve their lives or businesses, which can lead them down the path toward making a purchase from you at some point in the future (if it's not already happening).
5. Segmentation
Segmentation is a key component of effective email marketing. You can't just send an email to the whole world and hope it works—that's why we have spam filters! Email marketing professionals know that by identifying and targeting specific groups of people, you'll be much more likely to get them engaged with whatever you're selling.
The first step in learning how to segment your audience is to identify what makes them unique. The easiest way is by using data from past campaigns: if one particular email campaign performed better than others, chances are it was because it had a narrower target audience than the others.
For example, let's say I'm running an online store that sells discount clothing for dogs (no kidding). In my last campaign, I mailed my subscribers a coupon code for 10% off their next purchase if they ordered within 48 hours—but only if they said they were buying something else from me besides dog clothes (such as dog food or toys). This approach worked very well because it targeted customers who weren't already interested in buying dog clothes but might be interested in other products we sell at my store.
6. Email list building
Email list building is a critical skill to learn, especially if you want to be an effective email marketer. A reliable and responsive email list is the foundation of your relationship with your subscribers, and it's also one of the best ways to grow your business.
Here are some tips for building an effective email list:
Keep it simple - Make sure that you have clear opt-in forms on each page of your website or blog so that visitors can quickly sign up for updates from you. If possible, use double opt-in so that users will be notified by email when they've signed up (this way there's no chance someone could accidentally subscribe).
Use lead magnets - Offer something relevant as an incentive for people signing up for your list—whether it's a free ebook or access to exclusive content—but don't go overboard with how many hoops they need to jump through just getting into their inboxes! Think about what kind of value exchange makes sense given what kind of subscriber base you're hoping to attract; do people want advice on starting businesses? Or perhaps they'd prefer e-books about money management?
7. Email testing, including A/B testing
A/B testing is a method of comparing two versions of a webpage to see which one performs better. It's a way to experiment with different elements in your emails and determine what works best for your audience. You can use it to test subject lines, email content, or even the layout of your email template itself. A/B testing is really easy to do using Google Analytics:
Sign in to your Gmail account.
Click on "Settings" in the upper right-hand corner (or go directly here: https://mail.google.com/settings).
Scroll down until you see "General Email Settings" under Content Settings and click it so that it expands into its own section like below:
Under this section, there will be an option called "A/B Testing" which will give you access to all of the above settings as well as allow you to create multiple variations of emails based on these settings in order for each variation to be sent out randomly over time so that there will be no bias towards either version when determining results from recipients who have received both versions during their testing period
8. Subject line writing and optimization
Your subject line is the first thing recipients see when they open your email. It's your chance to coax people into reading further, so make sure you're using it effectively. Try these strategies:
Keep it simple and clear. People scan their inboxes for red-flags—anything that looks like spam will be deleted before they even get to the content of the message. If possible, use a subject line that's short and informative; if you can't do this in a way that conveys all of your message's value in one line or two, then consider breaking up your subject into two lines (useful tip: Google Analytics can help you identify how many clicks go to each part of a longer subject).
Use keywords and numbers appropriately when writing a subject line—don't overdo either one! Be sure to include some relevant keywords or phrases so that Gmail can pick up on them as well as some descriptive words so readers know what they're getting from opening from them (if possible). Consider using numbers if there is an important metric associated with an upcoming event/announcement/deal...or if there isn't one but still want more visibility than usual--this could make all difference since people often search based on number sequence in their inboxes!
9. Marketing Automation
Marketing automation tools are a great way to manage your email marketing more efficiently.
Automation tools can help you send more targeted emails. With the use of data, automation will make sure that every recipient gets an email that is most relevant to their needs and helps them achieve their goals.
Automation tools can help you manage your email marketing campaign. An effective campaign has multiple components such as sending out newsletters, nurturing leads, collecting feedback, and more which can be automated using these tools in an easy-to-use manner so that they don’t cause any trouble while running it at scale.
Automation tools can track all the important metrics related to your campaign such as open rates or click-through rates etc., which helps improve future campaigns based on what worked well or not so well in the previous one!
10. Analytics and data collection and analysis
Analytics and data collection and analysis is a skills that every email marketer should have. It can help you understand your audience better, improve your open rates and clicks, as well as optimize your campaigns.
What is analytics?
Analytics is the process of collecting data on user behavior with the goal of understanding how they interact with your emails so you can optimize future messaging based on those insights. For example, if you see that people who receive an email at 8am are more likely to open it than people receiving emails at 10pm, then obviously sending emails earlier in the day will result in higher open rates.
Mobile optimization for emails
When it comes to email marketing, mobile optimization is a must. Here's how you can make sure your emails look good on all devices:
Make sure that your message isn’t too long (keep it under 500 characters).
Use images in your emails. This will help with a readability as well as conversion rates and click-throughs.
Keep the color scheme simple and consistent across all of your messages, so that readers can easily recognize them across platforms or devices.
11. Social media for email marketing
Social media is a great place to find new subscribers and customers. It's also a great way to build a community around your brand, as well as your business. Here are some reasons why:
Social media sites make it easy for people to sign up for updates from you (and others) in the form of likes, follows, shares, and more.
People who follow you on social media tend to be interested in what you have to say about topics related to business or personal interests because they chose this option of their own accord (they're not being forced).
You can use social media sites as online communities where members post questions/comments/feedback that provide valuable information back into the mix when developing future products and services
You can learn many skills related to e-mail marketing
There are many skills related to e-mail marketing that you can learn. For example, here are some of the skills that you can learn and how you might use them in your career:
How to write an effective subject line. Writing a good subject line is one of the most important parts of sending out an email campaign. A good subject line will help increase open rates, clickthroughs, and conversions on your emails by making them more appealing to recipients. The best way to learn how to write a great subject line is by studying the best ones written by other people (and their results). Knowing what works best will help tremendously when it comes time for you to write your own!
How marketing automation works, including creating automated tasks such as drip campaigns or reminders about upcoming events or sales promotions. While this might not be something all companies do yet (or ever), it’s still important for anyone who wants to work in this field because learning about these systems will give them an idea of where things are headed in terms of technology within their industry — especially since so many other industries already use this type of system extensively!
Conclusion
As you can see, there’s a lot more to email marketing than just sending emails. I hope this list has given you some ideas for skills to work on, and that you can start climbing the ladder in your career!